Mister

Pronunciation

• enPR: mÄ­sʹ-tÉ™r, IPA: /ˈmɪstÉ™r/
• UK IPA: ˈmɪstÉ™(ɹ)
• US IPA: ˈmɪstÉš
• Rhymes: -ɪstÉ™(r)
• Homophones: Mr., Mister

Unaccented variant of master

Full definition of mister

Noun

1. Title conferred on an adult male.You may sit here, mister.
• 1855, George Musalas Colvocoresses, Four Years in the Government Exploring Expedition, J. M. Fairchild & co., page 358:Fine day to see sights, gentlemen. Well, misters, here's the railing round the ground, and there's the paling round the tomb, eight feet deep, six feet long, and three feet wide.
• 1908, Jack Brand, By Wild Waves Tossed: An Ocean Love Story, The McClure Company, page 90:There's only three misters aboard this ship, or, rather, there's only two.

Coordinate terms

• (title of adult male) master, mistress, Mrs., Miss, Ms., Dr., Doctor

Verb

1. (transitive) To address by the title of "mister".

From Anglo-Norman mester, meister (et al.), from Latin misterium, a medieval conflation of Latin ministerium ("ministry") with Latin mysterium ("mystery").

David Wallace, Chaucerian polity: absolutist lineages and associational forms in England and Italy, Stanford University Press, 1997

Noun

1. (obsolete) Someone's business or function; an occupation, employment, trade.
2. (now rare, dialectal) A kind, type of.
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.ix:The Redcrosse knight toward him crossed fast,
  To weet, what mister wight was so dismayd ....
3. (obsolete) Need (of something).
• 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book VI:for of your helpe I had grete mystir: For I drede me sore to passe this foreste.
4. (obsolete) Necessity; the necessary time.
• 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book I.15:As for hym sayd kynge Carados, I wylle encountre with kynge bors, and ye wil rescowe me whan myster is ....

Verb

1. (obsolete, impersonal) To be necessary; to matter.
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.vii:As for my name, it mistreth not to tell;
  Call me the Squyre of Dames that me beseemeth well.

mist + -er.

Noun

1. A device that makes or sprays mist.Odessa D. uses a mister Sunday to fight the 106-degree heat at a NASCAR race in Fontana, California.

Derived terms

• demister

Anagrams

• ermits, merits, miters, mitres, remits, smiter, timers